Page:Wedding-ring, fit for the finger, or, The salve of divinity on the sore of humanity (5).pdf/17

Rh four things wherein the husband is a meet help to the wife.

1. In his protection of her from injuries. It is well observed by one, that the rib of which woman was made, was taken from under a man's arm; as the use of the arm is to keep off blows from the body, so the office of the husband is to ward off blows from the wife. The wife is the husband's treasury, and the husband should be the wife's armoury. In darkness he should be her sun for direction; in danger he should be her shield for protection.

2. In his providing for her necessaries. The husband must communicate maintenance to the wife, as the head conveys influence to the members; he must not be a drone, and she a drudge. A man in a married estate is like a chamberlain in an inn, there is knocking for him in every room. Many persons in this condition, waste that estate in luxury, which should supply their wives' necessity: they have neither the faith of a Christian, nor the love of a husband: It is a sad spectacle to see a virgin sold with her own money into slavery, when services are better than marriages; the one receives wages, while the other buys their fetters.

3. In his covering of her infirmities. Who would trample upon a jewel because it is fallen in the dirt? or throw away a heap of wheat for a little chaff? or, despise a golden wedge because it retains some dross? These roses have some prickles. Now husbands should spread a mantle of charity over their wives' infirmities. They are ill birds that defile their own